Phantom Reality
by Crusnik 13
Summary: After a bout with a recently upgraded Skulker Danny finds himself falling through a portal in the ghost zone, trapped in an unknown place and time where he soon discovers dragons aren't just ghosts and fairy tales. Rated T for character death, may up rating later if need be.
1. Chapter 1

**AN: This is my first attempt at a crossover and I only got the idea after reading Mirrored by Lynse whom I thank very much for allowing me to use some of their ideas(I will let you know each chapter which ideas don't actually belong to me). Any feedback is welcome as I would not only love to know what I'm doing right, but am just as interested in what I'm doing wrong. As far as the time line goes this takes place before Hong Kong Longs for American Dragon and after a slightly altered version of Phantom planet where nobody remembers the disaster (I'm not yet sure if I will let Danny's parents know his secret). I do not own Danny Phantom or American Dragon.**

**Anyway I really hope you like it.**

* * *

Danny heard the unmistakable buzzing sound of the bolt from Skulker's newest ecto-blasters whizzing toward him. He instinctively dodged to the left narrowly missing the blast. The next shot caught Danny by surprise as a random floating pillar was blasted into a fine dust, his heart catching in his chest at the near miss.

_'Ok,' _Danny thought _'even more reason not to get hit.'_ The whole situation was starting to get desperate. Danny could only dodge so many blasts before Skulker's random firing actually hit him and judging by the state of the pillar he didn't exactly want that to happen.

"You know Skulker!" Danny shouted " I'm no hunter, but even I know you can't exactly display your kill if you _INCINERATE IT!_" Behind him Danny heard the rather unexpected sound of Skulker's weapon powering down. "That actually worked?" he said to himself in absolute astonishment.

"You have a point ghost-child." he admitted bitterly.

_'This is far too easy.'_ Danny thought, even though he had dodged blasts for almost half an hour already, it was unlike Skulker to let Danny go this easily. He spun around just as something whistled past his ear.

"Hey!" Danny yelled as he dodged another shot and quickly took off again, "I thought I had a point!"

Behind him he heard Skulker laughing, "This one won't kill you whelp! That pleasure will be all mine!" Danny shuddered at the thought of his pelt hanging on Skulker's wall. He dodged some more floating objects, some of which appeared out of nowhere. He was flying faster than he had ever flown before and judging how quickly Skulker was firing off this new weapon he needed to be.

"AAARRGH!" Danny cried as a sharp pain suddenly hit him in the arm. Somewhere behind him, he heard Skulker laugh. Looking down to the spot on his arm that was slowly going numb Danny saw a small white and red dart.

"Oh Crud!" Danny yanked the small offending object out of his arm. As he sped through the ghost zone he closed his eyes to concentrate, he needed to fly faster than he had been, he needed to get as far away from Skulker as he could, and most importantly he needed to do it before the poison from the paralysis dart set in. He concentrated carefully on his icy core, according to Frostbite that was where all his power resided. Danny felt the icy tendrils of his powers and tried to focus on his ability of flight. It was within his grasp he could just start to feel the frozen energy and then his concentration began to slip and the numbness started to spread from his arm to the rest of his body. He turned around to see Skulker behind him and suddenly realised he had slowed down and was now at a complete stop. Skulker laughed maliciously at Danny's struggle to keep flying.

"How do you like my new formula whelp?" he gestured at one of the small darts loaded in his weapon. "They take longer to start working, but the effect lasts much longer, however that doesn't matter when there are enough of them!" Skulker unexpectedly fired off a blast. Darts were flying towards Danny, he was about to put up a shield when suddenly and idea came to him. In under a second the shield was up but instead of the usual dome covering himself, he created it in front of him letting the inner part of the dome point towards Skulker. One by one he watched, grinning, as the darts were redirected towards Skulker. The last dart, however managed to get past the shield and buried itself in Danny's arm. Danny watched Skulker's face distort in horror as realisation dawned upon him and nearly all the darts he had fired at Danny embedded themselves in his armour, instantly paralysing him. It was a short-lived victory however as Danny felt the last of his ability to fly escaping him.

The ghost zone around him suddenly became strangely blurred. Skulker's new poison was making it harder to concentrate and it took Danny a moment to realise he was falling. As he looked down he noticed a strange spinning ripple in the green below him,

"Oh great!" he said sarcastically. Not only was Skulker's new and improved formula coursing through his veins, leaving him powerless for who knew how long, but as luck would have it he also just so happened to be falling straight down into one of those oh so notorious natural portals. Although he tried he couldn't alter the course of his plummet and fell straight through the portal, which closed almost instantly, locking Danny in whatever place the portal had thrown him into until, hopefully, someone found him.

"Today is turning out to be just perfect!" He yelled angrily at the sky as he continued to plummet down toward what, with his luck, was surely solid concrete.

* * *

"Damn it!" a black-haired teen cried as he slipped on yet another icy patch, his clothes were already drenched after all the times he had slipped already and had fallen into the freezing snow. It wouldn't really have been a problem if his internal heat would stop melting the snow and turning into icy water. He absolutely hated the cold, sure snowball fights were fun, but the cold made him uncomfortable, as if it was unhappy with his presence and was constantly trying to extinguish his inner fire. Another especially treacherous patch of ice threw the boy's feet out from underneath him, for the billionth time that day already.

As Jake Long lay flat on his back, contemplating whether he should get up or just wait for summer to come and melt the ice, he noticed something strange shimmering in the sky. "Eye of the dragon." he said. Calling on his superior dragon vision it didn't take long to find the source of the anomaly. There was only one thing that looked like that and that was a portal. As he watched he noticed something come through the portal just as it shrunk into nothing. Looking carefully Jake realised that the figure seemed to be falling, it also looked like a person.

_'Wait!'_ Jake suddenly realised _'That is a person!'_ Jake jumped to his feet, unhindered by the ice that had been plotting his vertical demise earlier. "Dragon up!" he cried as he completely released his inner fire, he smiled as he allowed the warm flames to engulf his entire body. In a matter of seconds the boy was gone, in his place stood a vibrant red dragon with green spines running down it's back and razor-sharp grey claws. Jake cringed as he was suddenly hit by a wall of cold, violently reminding him of how much colder the winter felt as a dragon. He took a breath of the frostbitten air and braced himself for the cold rush of the frozen wind inevitable in flight. He released the breath as he jumped up and with one beat of his powerful wings he was airborne. He spun around to face the falling person and rocketed forward, flying as fast as his wings could take him. Jake was close enough now to see that the figure was that of a boy, he was also close enough to hear the boy angrily shout; "Today is turning out to be just prefect!"

_'Ok,'_ Jake thought '_definitely not the first time he's been through something like this.'_ Jake grabbed the boy's hand a few seconds later. The moment he touched him he almost let go, apart from the fact that he was colder than ice a strange fear took hold of Jake. He barely managed to fight through it and hold onto the boy.

"You know," Jake said to the boy trying to distract himself from the feeling "You have a strange definition of a perfect day."He looked down at the boy, still hanging by his wrist. The snow-white hair shifted as the boy looked up at Jake revealing unnaturally glowing green eyes that Jake swore were looking straight into his soul. Another wave of panic hit Jake as he saw the confused look on the boys face turn to a scowl, those were the eyes of a warrior, one who had a great deal more experience than Jake had, the boy looked down and spoke, more to himself than to Jake.

"And now it's another dragon, even better." he said bitterly. Jake felt chills run down his spine as the boy spoke, he wasn't quite sure what it was, but his voice sounded eerie and downright unnatural.

"Yo dude," Jake said, trying to mask his fear,"A little gratitude would be cool, you know, seeing how I just saved you and all!" The green eyes met his again sending a new barrage of chills through him.

"Saved me?" he asked, the warrior was gone and genuine confusion coloured both the boys eyes and face,"From what?" Jake was now confused too.

"Come on man you can't tell me you didn't notice you were falling."

"I was?" he asked, suddenly Jake noticed the boy's eyes were drooping and he had started slurring his words. Spotting something on the boy's shoulder Jake grabbed it with his free claw and pulled it out."Ow...ch" the boy said weakly as he started to lose consciousness. There was something very wrong here. Jake grabbed hold of the him properly, shivering as the impossibly cold body touched his, and raced him to his grandfather's shop, somehow managing to hold onto him while every instinct he had screamed at him to run as far as he could.


	2. Chapter 2

**AN: Oh wow! I honestly didn't think I would have so many people liking my story. Thanks to everyone who left a review, please keep them coming they do motivate me to write faster. Sorry it took so long for me to get this chapter up, but all my university assignments are due in the same week! Something I forgot to mention in the previous author's note was Danny and Jake's ages. Jake is 14, having had his dragon powers for a year, and Danny is 16, having his ghost powers for two years.**

**Anyway onto the story, hope you like it. :)**

* * *

Jake wasn't sure how he managed to make it to Gramps' shop. In fact if he hadn't slipped when he landed he wouldn't even have noticed he was there. The entire flight was a blur of cold and fear, it had been a conscious struggle to keep hold of the boy. Jake all too eagerly put the boy down upon realising his whereabouts and stretched his tired muscles that ached from the effort exerted through the short flight. Jake took a steadying breath hoping the frigid air would calm his nerves and soothe the pain. Mentally taking hold of his inner flame instantly transformed Jake back into a normal teenager. He looked at the ice-cold boy and a chill ran down the length of his spine at the thought of carrying him any farther than he already had. Reluctantly Jake grabbed hold of the boy and was rather surprised, not to mention relieved, when he touched him. He still felt just as cold as before, but the feeling of dread, although still there, was completely manageable. It felt like walking through an alleyway and constantly feeling like one of the shadows is more than just a shadow, nothing like before. The fear before had been paralysing and mind numbing, it was as if Jake had hung on to death itself.

"Yo Fu!" Jake shouted as he dragged the boy to the back door, "I need some help here dog!" The back door suddenly flew open, revealing an incredibly wrinkled dog standing on his hind legs as if he were human.

"What happened kid?" Fu asked, stepping out of the door-way to allow Jake to pull the unconscious boy through, "What's wrong with him?" Fu shut the door behind Jake and gasped. The back room's lights were off, but Jake noticed a faint glow lighting the room. Looking down at the boy Jake felt his jaw drop. He didn't quite know how he had missed it before, but surrounding the boy was a halo of white light.

"Fu, go get Gramps," Jake said still staring at the glowing boy. As Fu left the room Jake looked around the room, he spotted a couch and started the slightly difficult task of lifting the boy onto it. It wasn't easy as the boy was taller than Jake, it was even further complicated by his hands being numb from the cold and the fact he refused to 'Dragon Up', not knowing if his nerves could actually take any more of the intense fear from before. Gramps arrived just in time to see Jake finish putting the boy on the couch. He looked from Jake to the unconscious boy, his eyes growing wide as he noticed the light surrounding him. A confused expression covered Gramps' face as he looked back to Jake.

"What has happened young dragon?" he asked quietly.

"I'm not really sure," Jake admitted, "There was this portal real high up in the sky and something fell out. I noticed it was a person so I flew up and grabbed him." Jake pointed to the boy. "He was awake when I caught him. He was even upset about falling through the portal and he clearly knew about dragons."

"Well he sure ain't awake now kid," Fu said eyeing the figure on the couch. "What did you do to him?" he continued half jokingly.

"What!?" Jake asked, genuinely shocked, "I didn't do anything! It was probably this thing!" Jake pulled the red and white dart out of his pocket, careful not to touch its point, and handed it to Gramps." Like I said G," he continued, "he was awake when I caught him, but he started getting confused and tired. I saw that in his arm and pulled it out, but he blacked out pretty soon after that." Jake watched as Gramps carefully examined the dart. There was a drop of scarlet colouring the very tip.

"Fu-dog," Gramps said, "Do you know what this is?"

"Uhhh, a dart?"

"Not that!" Gramps yelled. "This red liquid!"

Fu took the dart from Gramps. "It could just be blood." He said as he looked it over. Jake watched intently as Fu sniffed the liquid, almost giving Jake a heart attack when he suddenly jumped back and threw the dart to the floor.

' It can't smell that bad, can it?' Jake thought as he stepped forward to smell what it was that had offended the dog's nose so severely.

"Don't touch that!" Fu screamed as he grabbed Jake's hand, pulling him away from the dart. "One drop of that will kill you kid!"

Jake looked to the couch. "He's not dead Fu," he said, giving the dog a sceptical look.

"I know Jake, but I'm warning you, you get that stuff into your system and you're a goner." Jake stared wide-eyed at the little red drop on the end of the dart.

"What is it, Fu-dog?" Gramps asked.

"It's a concentrated extract made from the seeds of the Rosary Pea plant. Deadly to humans, horses and all magical creatures."

"Yo Fu," Jake said, "You're telling me there's a deadly pea out there?"

"Yeah," Fu replied, "But seeing as that kid is still alive I have a feeling the poison might have been diluted, but I still wouldn't take any chances." Jake looked at the eerily glowing boy. He was out cold, at least Jake hoped he was. He couldn't hear him breathing, but he saw him move slightly every now and then.

"Come young dragon," Jake heard gramps say, "There is nothing we can do for the boy. We shall leave Fu-dog to watch over him. In the meantime I want to hear more of what happened." Jake knew his grandpa wanted to talk about what it was that was bugging Jake. He always could tell when Jake left parts of the story out, but he honestly didn't want to admit how terrified he had been before. Nodding in agreement Jake silently stood and followed his grandpa to the front of the shop, leaving Fu alone in the dimly lit room.

* * *

Danny's eyelids felt like lead weights. he couldn't quite understand why he was so tired, or why he felt so apprehensive. He was vaguely aware of something warm on his forehead, probably Jazz taking his temperature, although he didn't know why she would do that. Images started racing through Danny's mind. At first they were just a fuzzy green swirling mess, but gradually the swirling turned into a portal and the green into the ghost zone and Danny's eyes shot open. He looked around him and quietly sat up. 'No Skulker,' he thought 'that's a good sign, but where, and more importantly, when am I?' Danny stood up soundlessly and let his eyes glide across the room, taking in its details and every available escape route, just in case he needed to fight his way out of here. His eyes stopped dead in the center of the room. Skulker's dart lay on the floor, probably the same one that's poison was still making things a bit foggy for Danny. The dart however wasn't what had caught his attention. Standing a meter away from it, trying to pick it up with the longest pair of tongs Danny had ever seen, was a dog. The dog seemed more than comfortable standing on it's hind legs, not to mention holding something in its paws.

"Drat!" the dog said as the small dart slipped from the tongs grip. Danny wasn't quite sure whether to help the talking dog or just quietly slip away, but the dog hadn't set off his ghost sense so he had to be dreaming. Deciding the dog looked harmless enough Danny walked toward him to help.

"Um dude, "he said' "It works better when you do this." Danny reached down and picked up the tiny dart and held it out to the dog.

"You're awake?" it asked, completely shocked.

"That's debatable " Danny replied' "Although this doesn't feel like a dream." The dog looked at Danny in a way that seemed to scream 'of course not'. "So, not a dream?" Danny asked, subtly shifting his leg to get in a better fighting stance.

"Gramps! Jake!" The dog called out, apparently unaware of the change in Danny's body language. "Throw that in here kid." the dog said holding out a glass jar. Danny dropped the dart into the jar and while the dog closed the jar and put it on a shelf he slowly turned so his back faced what looked like an exterior door. When an old man and a boy entered the room Danny was ready to fight. Using a technique he had learnt through countless battle experiences, he stood in a way that looked casual, but in reality all his muscles were tensed and he was perfectly set up for an attack. Danny looked at the boy, who was shorter than he was, but Danny guessed their ages were probably pretty close, maybe only a year or two apart. Even shorter than the boy was the old man standing next to him. Where the boy was completely unaware of Danny's body language, the old man was not.

"Where am I?" Danny asked, still looking at the old man.

"You are in the back room at Lao Shi's electronics," he replied, not taking his eyes of Danny, "I am Lao Shi, this is Fu-dog," he gestured to the talking dog" and this is my grandson Jake." Danny took another look at Jake and couldn't help but notice that he was avoiding looking him in the eye.

'Not good.' Danny thought, "What is the date?" Danny asked directing his question at Jake, but Jake continued to look away.

"It's the fifth of May 2005 kid," Fu-dog said, an understanding look on his face, " As for a better idea of where; this is New York City." Danny couldn't hide the look of shock on his face. Not only was he in the right time, but also on the right continent.

'Either my luck is changing,' he thought, 'or something is gonna go horribly wrong.' Danny was so caught up in thinking of all the things that could possibly go wrong that he didn't hear Fu explain to Jake how portals worked and didn't hear Jake's subsequent question directed at him. He was instantly snapped back to reality when he noticed Jake moving towards him. "Stay back!" Danny warned, instinctively making his stance more obvious, letting everyone in the room know he was ready to fight. The tension in the room was instant, both Danny and Jake waiting for the other to make the first move. Danny had learnt, through far too many errors, never to underestimate your opponent, even if he was just a kid, after all Danny was just a kid too. Before any hostilities occurred, however, Lao Shi stepped in between the two boys.

"That is enough." he said sternly to Jake, to Danny he gently asked, "What is your name?"

"Danny Phantom." he replied , all the while carefully watching the old man's movements.

"Well Danny Phantom," he said, a soothing tone coming into his voice, " we mean you no harm. You fell through a portal and became unconscious. Jake brought you here to recover." Danny looked from Lao Shi to Jake. Taking a calming breath he released the tension in his muscles and allowed himself to relax.

'If they wanted to harm me, they probably would have done it while I was out cold.' he thought. A sudden loud knock on the door behind Danny made everyone jump. Danny stepped aside to allow Fu-dog to open the door. Standing on the other side was what Danny could only describe as a fairy wearing a light brown postman's uniform. He watched as the 'fairy' handed Fu-dog a letter. Everyone stared intently as Fu opened the letter and began to read it. The dogs surprisingly expressive face became very worried.

"It's from Veronica kid." Fu-dog said, "There's a mountain Hydra attacking the Magus bazaar!"

"No worries Fu," Jake said cockily, "I'm on it!" Danny watched as everyone followed Jake outside.

"Be careful young dragon." Lao Shi said, instantly sparking Danny's curiosity.

"I will G, Dragon up!" Jake yelled. Danny felt his jaw drop to the ground as Jake become engulfed in flames and was replaced by the dragon that he suddenly remembered seeing before he blacked out. Jake stretched his large bat-like wings.

"No way I'm sitting this one out," Danny said under his breath. He checked and saw that both Fu-dog and Lao Shi were still watching Jake. As Jake beat his powerful wings and took off Danny flew invisibly after him. Something strange was going on here, strange even by his standard, and he was going to get to the bottom of it.


	3. Chapter 3

**AN: Thanks for the reviews guys. I actually had this chapter written last week I just kept finding things in it I didn't like and kept tweaking it until I got to this, unfortunately its not as long as the last chapter, but hopefully the next one will be longer. As for those of you who have been asking me to continue with the story you need not worry. This entire story is completely planned and mapped out, all I need to do is write the chapters according to my plans. So I promise to finish I won't stop updating until it's finished.**

* * *

The flight to the Magus Bazaar was an uneventful one. Jake was enjoying the numbing effect the frigid air was having on his muscles, leaving him free to think on what lay ahead. He had heard of a hydra before, but never actually fought one or even seen one. "Well," he said to himself, "it can't be too big. I mean no one's ever gotten a picture of it, so it's gotta be good at hiding." As the Magus Bazaar came into view Jake caught his first sight of the creature. Three long snake like heads curved their way out of a solid mountainous body, sturdily grounded to the earth by what looked like four of the biggest tree trunks Jake had ever seen. Keeping the beast stable was a large thick tail. The creature towered above the Magus Bazaar, each of the three heads spewing angry, white-hot flames down on the panicking streets below. "How am I supposed to fight that thing!" Jake cried out as he looked from head to head to head. Screwing up his courage Jake charged into battle. He let loose a rainstorm of fireballs on the hydra, instantly gaining it's undivided attention. The heads hissed loudly at Jake, who soon found himself dodging gigantic razor sharp fangs.

"Yo," Jake tried, "can't we just talk?" A white-hot blast of fire shot past Jake, barely missing him. "I'll take that as a no," he said. In between ducking and dodging the attacks of three furious heads, Jake concentrated on trying to find a weak spot on the behemoth. Jake looked carefully over the creature's vast body. The entire thing was covered in fist sized scales that glittered like emeralds in the light. Jake knew those would be near impossible to get through, but when Jake took a second look he noticed something he hadn't seen before. "That's it!" Jake shouted in joy. Every part of the creature was covered in the green scales, every part except its serpentine necks. The creature glared at Jake after his joyous outburst and doubled its efforts of crushing the dragon. Jake struggled to set himself up for an attack. Dodging another furious head gave him a clear shot. He spun around striking the hydra in the neck with the barbed edge of his tail. Jake heard the colossus screaming in pain, but there was no chance to celebrate or even see what damaged he had done as Jake found himself being thrown to the ground. With a loud thud Jake hit the ground.

The creature was still shrieking as Jake opened his eyes. He looked around trying to see what it was that had him pinned down. Lying on top of Jake's tail, as well as his right wing, was one of the Hydra's massive necks. Jake felt his jaw drop, he was completely stunned. He had known the creature's neck was vulnerable, but he hadn't expected to slice right through it. Looking back at the creature he saw a stump where the neck used to be, but there was no blood. "That can't be right," Jake said to himself, "its neck just got sliced off, how is it not bleeding?" Jake watched in horror as the stump started to move. Two small bumps appeared and slowly grew, snaking their way up to the remaining two heads.

Jake couldn't move.

No matter how hard he struggled, he couldn't lift the immense weight off his wing without risking tearing through the delicate leathery membrane that helped him to fly. Jake took one last look at the hydra and saw four heads glaring down at him, smiling wickedly. As the heads launched themselves forward Jake shut his eyes, bracing himself for what would be a fatal blow. An icy fear took hold of Jake's heart, choking what was left of his courage. Jake felt a tear escape his eye. 'I'm gonna die,' he realised bleakly. He was terrified, terrified to the point that every part of him started to feel strange, almost tingly. Jake waited as the fear tightened its grip on him, stabbing it's icy claws into his soul. He waited for the smouldering heat of thousand degree flames. He waited for the stabbing pain from a hundred elephant tusk sized teeth, but it never came. "Am I already dead?" he silently asked himself.

"Not yet." He heard a familiar yet bone-chilling voice reply. Suddenly realizing the fear had disappeared he opened his eyes and found himself in an alley, hidden from the Hydra's view. Standing directly in front of him, eyes glowing an unnatural bright green, was Danny Phantom.

* * *

Danny had had no trouble following Jake. The kid, or was it dragon, could fly at incredible speeds, in fact had it been a year ago Jake would have flown circles around Danny. That, however, was a year ago. After the disasteroid disaster Danny had put more focus into developing his abilities. The ghosts in the ghost zone had even left him and Amity Park alone for an entire two months, mainly because that was how long it had taken his dad to fix the portal, leaving Danny free to train with Frostbite. Those two months had taught Danny a lot and not only was he far stronger, he was faster too. So when Jake had sped up and charged into battle, Danny would have found it easy to catch up, had he been paying attention to Jake.

As Jake blasted the hydra with flames Danny floated above the Magus bazaar, completely stunned. Down on the streets below him Danny saw every creature he had ever read about in Sam's mythology books, and about a hundred he hadn't, running away from the attacking monster. Danny wasn't sure how long he floated there in silence watching as unicorns, goblins and even fairies fled. A loud hiss caught his attention, bringing him back to reality. Danny looked to the centre of the town and gasped at the sight before him. Yet another creature straight out of Sam's book stood before him. Danny watched as the creature snapped at Jake, trying to crush the dragon in it's jaws. Danny wanted to rush in and help Jake fight the creature, but something made him stop. He remembered the page of the book in which he had read about hydra's clearly, but he couldn't remember exactly what it said.

"Come on Danny," he said to himself, "think!" There was something very important on that page about fighting a hydra. Danny concentrated "Ok," he said, "what do I know about hydras?" Danny thought hard, trying to recall the things he'd read. "A hydra has an element." He looked at the fray and noticed the Hydra shooting fire at Jake. "Ok definitely fire with this one. Ok, what else?" Danny watched as Jake dodged the heads, desperately trying to remember everything. "A hydra can only be beaten by an opposing element or by slicing off the lead head. The lead head is the one that moves slightly before the rest, but if you slice off the wrong head-" Danny stopped short as he saw Jake's tail spinning towards one of the Hydra's necks. "Jake! NOOOOO!" Danny cried as he took off toward him.

Danny was too late to stop Jake; all he could do was watch as the gigantic neck knocked the dragon out of the air. Danny winced in pain as the creature started to screech, he covered his ears, silently cursing his enhanced hearing. When the screeching finally stopped it took Danny a moment to gain his bearings, shaking his head to try and get rid of the ringing in his ears. Danny looked back to the Hydra. Four heads were growling, smiling menacingly at the ground. Danny looked down and saw Jake trapped under the massive neck. As the Hydra launched it's heads to attack, Danny launched himself towards Jake. With a second to spare Danny grabbed hold of the dragon, turning him both intangible and invisible. He quickly flew Jake to an alley, where he was relatively sure the hydra couldn't see them. Danny was about to fly off when he heard Jake speaking.

"Am I already dead?" he asked weakly.

"Not yet." Danny replied. Jake opened his eyes and looked around him, when he noticed Danny he seemed almost scared. "Sorry," Danny said hurriedly, trying to correct himself, "I probably shouldn't have said that." He held out his hand to Jake to help him up. "You're fine, but that Hydra has another thing coming." Danny realised Jake wasn't going to accept his offer of help and let his hand drop. "Look," Danny said, "you stay right here, I'll deal with that hydra."

"You? Deal with that!" Jake shouted pointing in the direction of the massive beast. "Yo dude, I dunno who you think you are, but think this through man. If the Amdrag can't beat it, how are you gonna?"

"The Amdrag?" Danny asked, completely confused. Before Jake could answer a shrill scream pierced the air. Danny shot into the sky to see the source of the scream. Two red-headed girls were trapped in a dead-end alley and the hydra was advancing on them. Danny looked down and saw Jake taking off. "That takes care of the girls," he said," now all that's left is the giant, four-headed fire-breathing monster, which I have no idea how to beat. Oh wait!" Danny suddenly remembered something from before, "It's weakness is an opposing element. Duh! Fire and ice." As Jake raced to save the girls Danny flew into battle. "Hey! Tall, green and scaly!" he shouted "You need to chill!" Danny grabbed hold of his ice powers and took aim at the hydra. The beast fired a ball of flame at him, but Danny froze the fire with his ghostly ice and shattered it with one powerful punch. All the hydra's heads looked at the smiling ghost, whose hands and eyes shone blue with frozen energy. The heads looked at each other, nodding as they made some sort of decision. Danny was ready for whatever they were planning on throwing at him next, "Come on!" he shouted, "I'm waiting!" The hydra then did the only thing Danny hadn't been expecting. With an impressive amount of speed and manoeuvrability it spun around and fled back to the mountains. "Ok, what just happened?"Danny asked, again questioning whether he truly was awake. _'Maybe living monsters have a greater sense of self-preservation than ghosts.'_ he thought, shrugging his shoulders.

Looking around Danny spotted Jake waving goodbye to the two girls, who he could now see were twins, although they were about as different as Sam and her mother. He was starting to get worried about Sam, as well as everyone else. He'd only been gone a couple of hours, but no one in Amity park knew where he was. He hadn't exactly had the chance to warn them he would be gone as Skulker had grabbed him out of the sky on his way to school. Danny was suddenly aware that the two girls were no longer standing where they had been. He had been so lost in thought that, for the second time that day, he had forgotten about Jake. Looking to the direction Jake had flown off in, Danny saw a small dot on the horizon. "Oh no you don't!" Danny said as he took off after it. There was no way he was letting Jake out of his sight. Danny had a lot of questions and Jake was going to answer them all.


	4. Chapter 4

**AN: Chapter 4 is finally up! There's a lot of dialogue in this chapter, so it took a bit longer to write and was admittedly more challenging. Thanks to everyone who left a review.**

**I don not own Danny Phantom or American Dragon...yet.**

* * *

"Ooh! Where is he?" Jazz almost screamed in frustration. This was the seventh phone call today that had gone straight to the answering service. It wasn't like Danny to not answer his phone, well actually it was, but usually he would end up calling her back, eventually. That, however, wasn't the only reason Jazz was worried. She could handle Danny without his phone, again. What really had her panicking was the fact that Danny hadn't even shown up to school that day. Neither Sam nor Tucker knew where he was. Both of them had tried to tell her to relax, but Jazz was having a hard time with that considering his absence. She had, of course, gone to Mr. Lancer to explain that Danny had been feeling very ill and would possibly be unable to make it to school. The slightly overweight school teacher held Jazz in high regard and had therefore believed her every word. Feeling worried, and realizing her search for Danny was going nowhere, Jazz made her way to the kitchen and slumped down in one of the chairs.

"Hi Sweetie." her mom said, looking up from what was either an experiment or dinner, one never could tell. "Can you go call your brother for dinner?"

_'So it _is _dinner,'_ Jazz thought, eyeing her mother warily. Jazz looked at the pot of bubbling purple goo next to the red haired woman. "Danny's not here," she said, all the while watching the purple goo as it grew a face and started to growl at her mom.

"Oh? And where is he?" her mom asked as she casually flipped up the hood of her blue hazmat jumpsuit and grabbed hold of the goggles. Maddie looked at the now sentient stew and turned the dial on the goggles. Green ectoplasmic energy beams shot out and incinerated the pot, leaving a smoking black scorch mark on the newly replaced stove top.

"Um, he's at Sam's," Jazz said quickly, "studying for a, er...test?" she still wasn't used to covering for Danny and gave her mom a nervous smile as she silently hoped she would believe her.

"MADDIE!" an Over-excited scream interrupted Jazz's thoughts. Both her and her mom looked to the door leading to the living room. Seconds later her dad, Jack, came skidding to a halt in front of the kitchen table. His smile as bright as his orange jumpsuit.

"What is it Jack?" Maddie asked

"It's the scanners!" Jack boomed excitedly, "There's a huge reading coming from the Fenton Ghost Scanner in New York!"

"Really?" Jazz watched as her mom excitedly ran over to the toaster. Pressing a button on its side revealed a hidden monitor in the kitchen wall, which Maddie silently study for a few moments. "These ecto signatures are spectacular!" she shouted in joy, "They're so different to the ones around here. Jack we must get a sample!"

"I know!" Jack exclaimed, practically jumping for joy at the prospect of collecting new samples. "Which is why we are leaving for New York tomorrow afternoon! I've already called the school and gotten us a hotel!" Jack smiled and looked happily at Maddie "We'll start packing straight after dinner."

"Oh dinner!" Maddie suddenly remembered, looking at the charred remains of her purple stew. "Jazz sweetie?" She asked, smiling guiltily at her daughter.

Jazz sighed, "I'll go order the pizza" she said, getting up from the table and walking to the living room.

"Good thinking Jazzerincess!" Jack called after her. Jazz sat down on the living room couch and picked up the phone. She dialled the already familiar number of the pizza place and waited for them to pick up.

_'I shouldn't worry about Danny,'_ she thought, _'it's not the first time he's been gone for a day.'_ As Jazz ordered the pizza she mentally relaxed. Danny was fine, he was probably just having a busy day. She would wake up in the morning to find him passed out on his bed.

* * *

Jake was standing in the backroom of Lao Shi's electronics thinking back on what Kara and Sara had said after he'd rescued them.

_"The hydra is retreating and won't come back. Oh, and you're gonna make some new friends, whoop de doo." Kara had half heartedly said._

_"And one of your new friends will be crushed!" Sara had happily added_

Jake smiled at the memory of his fortunes. Kara's were usually easier to understand and Sara's never turned out quite the way he expected. He was wondering how fate would twist the meaning of crushing his new friend, when he was suddenly aware of Gramps yelling at him.

"Jake!" he yelled, "Pay attention!"

"Sorry G," Jake replied sheepishly.

"Now that I have your attention," Gramps continued, his voice getting louder with every word, "do you mind telling me why you abandoned Danny Phantom?"

"I didn't mean to," Jake tried, "I didn't even realize I had left the Magus Bazaar until I actually got here."

"Why not?" Gramps asked, his anger melting away to be replaced by curiosity.

"There's something about him G that puts me on edge." Jake said, studying the old man's face as he spoke.

"What is it about him young dragon?" Gramps was now not only curious, but also concerned.

"I dunno, maybe it's cause he's a wizard or something."

"He is a wizard?" the old man asked

"I think so," Jake replied, "He saved me from the hydra by somehow transporting us to an alley."

"Hmm..." Gramps held his hand to his mouth, carefully thinking over the information Jake had given him. "That would explain how he followed you," the old man said.

"And how he managed to disappear on us before." Fu added.

"I am afraid you must return to the Magus Bazaar young dragon." Gramps said after a few moments of thought.

"Return! But Why?" Jake had no intention of going back, his pride was still bruised from being so easily defeated.

"You must go and find Danny Phantom. It was wrong of you to fly off without him."

"Not to mention rude," everyone jumped at the sound of the chilling voice from the side of the room. Jake spun to his left to locate the speaker and saw Danny sitting on the couch, breathing heavily.

* * *

Danny looked at the shocked faces around him. He understood why ghosts enjoyed scaring people, and although he'd never admit it to Jazz, he loved doing it too, just on a smaller scale than his enemies.

"How long have you been there!" Jake finally managed to say.

"Just got here," Danny replied between breaths, "I lost sight of you a while back so I had to check every building in the last couple of blocks."

"Well I guess you don't have to go back to the Magus Bazaar kid," Fu said to Jake, "By the way, how did it go with the hydra?"

Danny saw Jake cringe, "Not good," he admitted, "I knocked off one of its necks and it just got worse from there on."

"You did what!" Lao Shi shouted at Jake, "Why would you cut off its neck Jake? It clearly says not to in the book! Have you not been studying these things?"

"Wait, what book?" Jake asked, "I've studied every book we have in this place and I've never seen any info on a hydra."

"Fu-dog!" Lao Shi yelled, "Fetch the book on hydras!" Danny watched the wrinkled dog run to an old shelf in the corner of the room. He read a couple of the titles and instantly decided that if he ever showed them to Sam she would want to read each and every one of them. "Now if you did not know how to defeat the hydra, how were you still able to?" Lao Shi was looking at Jake, who was looking at the floor, trying to avoid the question altogether.

"No one defeated it," Danny said, trying to save Jake from Lao Shi's piercing gaze. The old man turned his head to Danny. "I had just started to fight the thing, when it decided to run off."

"It ran off?" the shock on the old man's face was crystal clear, "Why would it do that?"

"Beats me, "Danny replied honestly, "I'm as confused by it as you. It fired an attack, which I neutralised and then it ran off. Honestly, from the size of the thing, I was expecting more." _'Whether for self preservation or not,'_ he thought, _'that hydra had fled far too easily.'_

"Strange," was all Lao Shi had to say.

"Gramps!" Fu-dog suddenly, and rather meekly, called from the shelf

"Yes Fu-dog?" he replied.

"I can't find it."

"What do you mean you can't find it?"

"I mean I've looked at all the books on the shelf and I didn't see it."

"Are you looking for the right book?"

"I think so, it's in _Goth's guide to Mythology_, right?" Danny jumped up at the mention of the missing books title.

"Excuse me," Danny interrupted, "the book you're looking for wouldn't happen to be very big, thick and have a blue cover, would it?"

"Yeah, that's it kid! Where did you see it?" Fu asked, obviously worried about Danny's answer.

"My girl- I mean a girl I know owns one." Danny mentally kicked himself for nearly slipping up. _'Careful Fenton, ghosts don't have girlfriends. Well not mortal ones anyway.' _

"FU-DOG!" Lao Shi turned to the now trembling dog, unaware of Danny's slip of the tongue. "That was a one of a kind book!" Danny watched in silence as Lao Shi lectured the talking dog, both in English and Chinese. He couldn't help but laugh at the thought of the old man trying to get the book back from Sam, she had grown rather attached to it.

"So," Danny heard Jake say uneasily," where are you from?"

"Amity Park," Danny answered, glad that Jake was no longer ignoring him.

"Sorry, but I've never heard of it."

"Yeah, surprisingly most people haven't." Danny saw Jake's confusion at this statement and tried to clear it up, "You see Amity Park is America's most haunted city. There are constantly ghost sightings and paranormal stuff like that, but somehow everything barely registers a blip on a national scale." Jake seemed unsure on whether to believe what Danny had just said.

"Is is close by?" Jake asked

"Actually no." Danny said, unable to hide the disappointment from his voice. He was suddenly aware how far away he was from home. Amity Park was a full day's drive away and that was when his dad was driving. Worst of all he was already exhausted and highly doubted he would be able to fly home.

"Can't you just use a teleportation spell to get yourself back home?" Fu-dog suddenly asked, apparently free from his lecture. Danny starred incredulously at the talking dog.

He suddenly realised it was a serious question and the dog was waiting for an answer. "Um...no?" he said, confusedly.

"Well, then there is only one solution," he heard Lao Shi say, "until we are able to find a way for Danny Phantom to get home, he will stay with Jake."

"But G!" Jake instantly protested.

"No buts young dragon, I will phone ahead and deal with Susan." and with that Lao Shi left the back room.

"Oh crud." Danny said to himself as the mention of the word phone. He saw Jake carefully watching him as he pulled out his mobile phone and flipped it open. "Oh great, Jazz is gonna kill me!"

"Yo Phantom, what's wrong?" Jake asked

"My battery is dead," he replied sheepishly, mentally slapping himself for not remembering to plug it into the charger the night before.

"Don't worry, you can charge it at my place."

Uh thanks," Danny said," listen you don't have to give me a place to stay, I can find somewhere else," although Danny highly doubted that he actually could, but Jake had seemed so reluctant he didn't feel like he should be intruding.

"It's no problem dude, just no weird stuff, ok? My dad doesn't know about magical creatures and my mom doesn't want him to know yet."

"I promise to be as normal as possible, if you answer some of my questions." Danny looked Jake directly in the eye, making his expression clearly convey that he wouldn't take no for an answer. He was rather surprised to see Jake flinch at his glare. _'Oops! I didn't mean to look that serious.'_

"Ok Phantom, I've got some questions for you too," Jake said, " but can it wait until we get to my place?"

"Ok, it's a deal then." Danny said , smiling at Jake. Danny followed Jake out of the store and down the snow covered side walk. _'I hope I can get home soon,'_ he thought. Amity Park needed him and if he didn't make it back for his and Sam's one year anniversary...Danny shuddered at the thought of what she might possibly do to him.


	5. Chapter 5

**A/N:Hi everyone, really sorry about how long it's taken to get this chapter up. My internet gateway actually burnt out and it's taken a while to get a new one. Cleverly in that period of time I put my chapter plan somewhere where I wouldn't loose it and promptly forgot where that was. The gateway problem is fixed and the chapter plan (after hours of searching) has been located. This is another dialogue heavy chapter and was a bit challenging. There is a repetitive bit in here as I wanted the conversation to be viewed from both Danny and Jake's point of view. After looking at the review I learnt that there may have been some confusion with Danny's comment about girlfriends. Danny doesn't think ghosts can't have girlfriends, he just thinks they can't have mortal ones. He doesn't want anyone to know Sam's name either as he can be a little paranoid at times, and he is a celebrity in Amity Park, so if word somehow got out he had a girlfriend all eyes would probably go to the girl he is seen with most often. Please keep the reviews coming as they are really useful. Now onto the story.**

**I do not own Danny Phantom or American Dragon.**

* * *

Danny walked beside Jake, it felt weird to be walking while in his ghost mode, but it would look strange if anyone spotted them. Danny looked at the quickly darkening sky, although he had managed to get to the right time period the portal had made him skip a couple of. It was a long and quiet journey, made longer when they had to go back to Lao Shi's shop in order to get a charger for Danny's phone. Danny had mentally kicked himself for revealing his phone, he of all people should have known better, but no one had even seemed to give it a second thought. _'Maybe it's not that uncommon for a teenage ghost to have a phone.'_ he thought.

"So," Jake said, out of the blue, "how old are you?"

Danny smiled, happy for the break in the awkward silence. "I'm sixteen," he replied "how old are you?"

"Fourteen." Jake said. Danny was glad to hear this. It was just as he had thought, him and Jake were pretty close in age so they should have something in common. Danny noticed Jake was looking downward and the silence was coming back. In an effort to get him talking again Danny said the first thing that came to mind.

"What's an Amdrag?"

"What?" Jake asked.

"You know, back in the alley you mentioned the Amdrag." Danny said "So what is it?"

"It's short for American Dragon." Jake said eyeing Danny curiously, "you know, protector of all magical creatures in America?"

"Actually I don't." Danny put his hand to the back of his neck. How he had managed to miss an entire magical world was beyond him.

"Oh.' Jake was clearly shocked.

"Should I know?" Danny asked, slightly embarrassed by his lack of knowledge.

"Well yeah," Jake began "all magical creatures should know about the dragon that guards them."

_'Oh great!' _Danny thought _'Not only did I miss the existence of an entire magical world, but now I'm part of it too!?' _"So are there other American Dragons too?" Danny asked

"No," Jake smiled, obviously amused by the question "there's only one Amdrag, but there are plenty of dragon guardians. They're named after the region they protect."

"Oh, I get!" Danny said "So there would be an Indian dragon and an African dragon and so on."

"You got it." Jake replied. Danny smiled at Jake, it was good to see him more relaxed and actually talking.

"So who is the American Dragon?" Danny asked.

Jake was clearly taken aback by this question, but quickly shrugged it off. "I am." he said rather seriously.

Danny thought about this for a moment. "So back in the alley you were talking about yourself?"

"Yeah." Jake said.

"So you refer to yourself in the third person?"

"Sometimes..." Jake admitted, looking embarrassed by his confession. Danny hoped he hadn't insulted Jake he had simply been trying to get things straight. "Seeing as you couldn't wait 'til we got to my place before asking your questions, neither will I."

Danny looked around to see if anyone was near them. "Ok," he said after realising the street was empty "fire away."

"First of all, why aren't you getting cold? It's freezing out here man and you don't seem to even notice." As if to help emphasize Jake's point, a huge gust of frozen wind rammed into them, causing Jake to slip on an icy patch, landing flat on his back in a pile of snow. "Of course." Jake muttered under his breath. Danny held out a hand to help Jake up and was surprised when he actually took it instead of looking away as he had before. Danny was shocked at how warm Jake's hand felt, it was almost too hot to hold onto. Normal Humans always felt warmer when he was in his ghost mode, but not this much. "Dude?" Jake asked, waving his free hand in front of Danny's face "You ok?"

"Sorry!" Danny said, letting go of Jake's hand. "Is your hand always that hot?" he asked.

"Huh?" Jake said looking at his hand "Well I guess so. It's warmer than a human's hand because of the whole dragon thing. It has to do with my inner-fire."

"Got it." Danny said "So it's something all dragons have?"

"No," Jake replied "just fire breathing dragons. Different dragons have different abilities. Ice breathing dragons are slightly cooler than humans to the touch and lightning breathers give you a slight shock, almost like static."

"Ok, makes sense. But wouldn't someone notice something was off if they shook your hand or something?"

"Dude, it's not that different."

"Really? It was almost unbearably hot to me."

"That's weird." Jake and Danny both walked in silent thought for a few seconds. "Could it have something to do with why you ain't cold?" Jake asked.

Danny thought about that for a while and suddenly remembered Jake's he had asked him the same question already"Oh right, you asked about that before." Danny said smiling sheepishly"Actually now that I think about it, it probably is the reason. Jake do I feel cold to you?"

"Yeah man! You're colder than ice and each time I touch you I feel paralysing fear." Jake stopped dead and his cheeks went red, Danny was shocked, no one had never had a reaction like that to him.

"Well that explains why you wouldn't let me help you in the alley." Danny said, finally understanding Jake's reluctance to accept his help, he should've known there was a good reason for it, after all Jake seemed like a cool kid "but why did you let me help you now?"

"The fear is manageable if I'm in human form, but it's not when I'm a dragon." Jake sheepishly admitted, his cheeks turning redder by the second.

_'Somehow I don't think he meant to tell me about the fear part.'_ Danny thought. "If it helps, Jake, a lot of people are scared of me, though not usually that intensely. Fear is a natural response." Jake looked relieved, although a bit confused. "As for why the cold doesn't bother me it has to do with where my power comes from."

"Where's that?" Jake asked.

"Well, just like you have your inner-fire, I have a frozen core. It's what makes me cold to normal humans and I think it's also why I feel impossibly cold to you."_  
_

"Yeah, I guess that makes sense." Jake said smiling at Danny "I'm kinda relieved there's a reason for it, ya know? But I still don't get why-" Jake was suddenly sent hurtling backwards as a huge box flew into him. a chill ran through Danny's entire body, making him shiver as a wisp of blue mist made its way past his lips. Danny spun around to face his opponent.

"I'm going-" Danny stopped halfway through his usual line and looked down at his black suit. "Oh, right." After slapping his hand to his forehead Danny started to look around, trying to spot the ghost that had set off his ghost sense. A ghost wearing a blue-gray beanie and overalls suddenly appeared.

"BEWARE! FOR I AM THE BOX GHOST!" he cried, "AND I HAVE COME TO CLAIM THE BOXES OF THIS FAIR CITY FOR MY OWN EVIL DESIRES!"

Danny watched the box ghost laugh menacingly. "Of course." Danny sighed. "Hey Jake, how far are we from your place?" Danny looked to the panicking dragon who's eyes were glued to the ridiculously annoying spectre. But he didn't get any response. Danny noticed Jake was looking from the ghost to a door directly ahead of them. _'I'll take that as pretty close.'_

"Why don't you go inside," Danny said worried about the how nervous the Box Ghost was making Jake. "I'll deal with this guy."

"Are you sure?" Jake asked nervously, never taking his eye's off the Box Ghost.

"Yeah," Danny said calmly "I've dealt with him more times than I care to count." Jake nodded and reluctantly made his way into the house. After Jake was indoors Danny flew up behind the Box Ghost and charged up his ecto-beam. "Hey Box Ghost!" he called, the Box Ghost turned to face Danny "Beware!" Danny cried as he fired off the ecto-beam. The Box Ghost went crashing to the ground and Danny reached for the Fenton thermos, only it wasn't there.

"I CAN SEE YOU HAVE NEGLECTED TO BRING YOUR CYLINDRICAL PRISON WITH YOU!" Danny spun around to see the Box Ghost floating behind him. "IT SEEMS I MUST FIND A DIFFERENT CITY TO CONQUER WITH MY STACKABLE CORRAGATED CARDBORD EVIL!"

"You mean you're running away." Danny deadpanned.

"Yes." the Box Ghost meekly replied "BUT NOT BEFORE I BURY YOU WITH" after a quick pause to read a label on a box floating next to him he continued, "KNIFES AND SKEWERS FOR BARBEQUE SUPERSTORE, BELLEVUE, OHIO!" The box Ghost charged the boxes with ecto-energy sending the sharp implements inside flying at Danny, who simply phased through them.

Danny looked down to ensure no one had been hit. "Is that the best, ugh!" Danny was cut short by boxes ramming into him and sending him flying at frightening speeds.

'BEWARE!" the box ghost cried as he fled and Danny hurtled towards the house Jake had retreated into.

* * *

A huge gust of blisteringly cold wind pushed Jake backwards making him step on a treacherous icy patch. The ice assassin made quick work of Jake's balance and had him lying in the snow in seconds. "Of course." Jake said to himself. He really hated winter, and it seemed the feeling was mutual. From his position he noticed Danny coming towards him. Danny held his hand out to help Jake up. After a moment's hesitation Jake grabbed hold of the gloved hand. Instantly the cold feeling and the dread rushed into him. By the time he was standing upright he was ready to let go, but Danny held on. "Yo, What gives?" Jake asked, looking at Danny, who was focused on Jake's hand. _'Does he feel it too?' _Jake wondered. "Dude"" Jake waved his free hand in front of Danny's face, trying to get his attention, "you ok?"

"Sorry!" Danny said, letting go of Jake's hand and instantly cutting off the fear. "Is your hand always that hot?" Danny asked, all the while staring at the hand in question.

"Huh?" Jake said, joining Danny in staring at his hand, _'It's hot?' _he thought, " Well I guess so. It's warmer than a human's hand because of the whole dragon thing. It has to do with my inner-fire." Jake said.

"Got it." Danny said, finally managing to tear his eyes away from Jake's hand, "So it's something all dragons have?"

"No," Jake replied "just fire breathing dragons. Different dragons have different abilities. Ice breathing dragons are slightly cooler than humans to the touch and lightning breathers give you a slight shock, almost like static."

"Ok, makes sense. But wouldn't someone notice something was off if they shook your hand or something?"

Jake stared at Danny for a few seconds, "Dude, it's not that different."

"Really? It was almost unbearably hot to me."

"That's weird." Jake said _'So it's like the opposite of me.' _he thought _when I feel impossible cold he feels almost unbearable heat. But why?_ An idea suddenly sprung to mind. "Could it have something to do with why you ain't cold?" Jake thought, slyly sneaking in his previous question.

"Oh right, you asked about that before." Danny said "Actually now that I think about it, it probably is the reason. Jake do I feel cold to you?"

"Yeah man! You're colder than ice and each time I touch you I feel paralysing fear." Jake stopped dead and his cheeks went red. _'Aw man! I didn't mean to tell him that last part!'_

"Well that explains why you wouldn't let me help you in the alley." Danny said, looking surprisingly understanding, although a bit shocked, by Jake's confession "but why did you let me help you now?"

_'Might as well go full out and tell him everything' _Jake thought, "The fear is manageable if I'm in human form," he admitted, all the while feeling his cheeks burn brighter and brighter. " but it's not when I'm a dragon

Danny looked at Jake thoughtfully, taking his time to carefully choose what he should say. "If it helps, Jake, a lot of people are scared of me, though not usually that intensely. Fear is a natural response." Jake was relieved, it was a weight off his shoulders to know it wasn't anything weird to feel that way, but why ? How could fear towards Danny possibly be normal?. "As for why the cold doesn't bother me it has to do with where my power comes from."

"Where's that?" Jake asked. _'I thought wizards just gor their power from wands and potions and stuff.'_

"Well, just like you have your inner-fire, I have a frozen core. It's what makes me cold to normal humans and I think it's also why I feel impossibly cold to you."

"Yeah, I guess that makes sense." Jake said smiling at Danny. _'It explains everything!' _he thought _'The cold inside Danny probably reacts with my heat and that's what causes the fear! It's not intense in normal people cause they aren't as warm as me!'_ Jake was now completely relaxed, "I'm kinda relieved there's a reason for it, ya know? But I still don't get why-" Jake was suddenly sent hurtling backwards as a huge box flew into him, throwing into a pile of malevolent snow.

"I'm going-" Jake heard Danny Shout. He looked toward him to see him looking down at his suit. "Oh, right." he said and proceed to smack his hand into his forehead. Danny started to look around, by the look on his face Jake could tell something was wrong. Jake jumped up from the snow, ready to fight. A chill ran down the length of his spine when he saw a floating man appear out of nowhere. He was wearing blue gray overalls and a matching beanie, his skin was tinted blue and he was glowing. _'A ghost.' _Jake thought. Images of the fight with Shackles Jack flashed through his mind and Jake found his legs no longer possessed any ability to move. He was terrified, he had beaten Shackles Jack, but just barely and he had had a way of sealing the malevolent spirit. He had nothing this time, how was he supposed to fight this guy.

"BEWARE! FOR I AM THE BOX GHOST!" the ghost cried, levitating some boxes around him to emphasize his point, "AND I HAVE COME TO CLAIM THE BOXES OF THIS FAIR CITY FOR MY OWN EVIL DESIRES!" Jake stared at the terrifying entity floating before them, only a few feet from his house. He was vaguely aware of Danny speaking, but it didn't seem all that important. _'Come on Jake,' _he thought_ 'snap out of it!' _Jake shook the cobwebs from his mind and tried to relax himself.

"Why don't you go inside," Danny said. "I'll deal with this guy."

"Are you sure?" Jake asked nervously, secretly hoping Danny was.

"Yeah," Danny said calmly "I've dealt with him more times than I care to count." Jake nodded and reluctantly made his way into the house. _'I shouldn't be leaving it all to him,'_ Jake thought _'I'm the American Dragon! I should be dealing with this!'_ No matter how hard he argued with himself though, Jake could not convince his body to change direction and go help Danny and soon he found himself in the living room, sitting on the sofa.

Jake felt awkward just sitting there, he felt like he should help Danny, but he knew he wouldn't be able to get himself to go back outside. For a while he just stared at the blank screen. _'Maybe I should turn it on.' _ he thought _'then at least it won't be so quiet.'_ Jake leaned forward to grab the remote that was lying on the coffee table. At that very second Danny Phantom went flying through the window and straight through Jake's outstretched hand. Jake felt time slow as he watched Danny go through him. He felt terror building up inside him as he watched Danny proceeded to hurtle straight through the wall. And sheer horror at the realisation that came to mind. Danny was a ghost.


	6. Chapter 6

**A/N: Hi guys, sorry that I took so long to update, but I'm back at uni and assignments reign supreme. This is unfortunately a short chapter, but the next one should arrive a bit sooner than this one took. Just a heads up, when you see a line during the story it means I've switched the point of view. Thanks for all the reviews on the previous chapter, I have tried to fix up the backtracking part to make it a bit more interesting. Please enjoy.**

* * *

"Ouch!" Danny said as he rubbed his head. He had gone straight through the house and ended up beeing rammed into a wall in the alley behind the building. Danny stood up and looked towards Jake's house. "Suppose I should go inside," he said "hopefully I didn't break anything." Danny walked up to the wall making himself both invisible and intangible, just in case it was the wrong house. He stuck his head through the wall and found himself looking up at Jake from the floor. Danny pulled his head from the wall and floated up to where Jake had been looking, making himself visible again he phased through the wall, coming to a stop directly on the other side and floating in front on Jake. Jake stood with his mouth hanging open, a look of pure horror on his face "Jake?" Danny asked suddenly noticing the expression on the younger boy's face, "What's wrong?" Jake just continued staring at Danny as if he'd grown a second head.

"You..." Jake finally managed to choke out.

"Me?" Danny was stunned, "What's wrong with me?"

"You're floating and going through stuff," Jake said, gesturing to the wall. Jake's face was pale and he seemed horrified, but instead of screaming his tone of voice was just disbelieving.

"And how is that wrong?" Danny asked, "Oh wait! Is it offensive to phase through the wall's of a dragon's home?" _"That's has to be it' _Danny thought _'That's the same expression and tone I get from Jazz when I've broken some obscure rule, that everyone should know, and done something impolite.'_

"You're supposed to be a Wizard!" Jake shouted, the panic in his voice finally catching up to his face.

Danny wasn't sure how to respond _'Why would he think I was a wizard?' _"Wait!" he said out loud suddenly realizing the implications of the question, "there are wizards too?"

"You don't know about wizards either?" Jake shouted raising his voice at Danny even further.

"No!" Danny snapped back, "I don't know about wizards. I don't know about fairies or trolls or werewolves or even living dragons! I don't know anything about this magical world! The only thing I know about is ghosts!" Danny hadn't realised how frustrated he had been about being so uneducated on something that, when he thought about it, was so obvious. There were plenty of mythical creatures as ghosts and ghosts were the remnants of living being, yet somehow he had never put two and two together. The shouting had helped Danny calm down, but unfortunately had had a far different effect on Jake who was now ghostly pale and trembling as a cold sweat ran down his brow. He looked as if he might have run away at any second. Danny mentally slapped himself, he of all people should now a ghost yelling in anger could be quite terrifying. "I'm sorry." Danny sighed, looking down at the floor "it's been a stressful and really weird day, I didn't mean to take it out on you." Jake seemed to calm down a bit.

"Are y-you?" Jake sputtered out.

"Am I what?" Danny asked, looking curiously at the trembling dragon.

"A ghost." Jake barely managed to get the words out, in fact if it hadn't been for Danny's sensitive hearing he wouldn't have even heard him.

Danny just stared at Jake for a few seconds, completely dumbstruck. "You didn't know?" He managed as he stared on in disbelief.

"Of course not! How could I have known?" Jake asked.

"Ummm, well for starters I'm glowing." Danny deadpanned and gestured to his eerily luminous body, " and my eyes glow green, and then there's the whole echoing voice thing. You can't tell me you didn't notice that."

"Well yeah..." Jake said putting his hand to the back of his neck, "but I've only seen ghosts once before today."

"Oh." Danny said, "By your reaction to me I take it they weren't exactly friendly."

"No," Jake said, "not at all and the worst part is half the time I couldn't even touch them!" Danny landed and walked slowly towards Jake.

_'This explains a lot.' _Danny thought. "You don't need to worry about me Jake," Danny said, putting his hand on Jake's shoulder and inadvertently making him shiver "I'm not evil or malevolent, in fact it's normally my job to get rid of ghosts who are."

"Glad I don't have your job." Jake said managing a small smile, which Danny gratefully returned. "You should probably go change," Jake said looking at Danny's clothes, "You kinda stand out wearing that suit."

"Ok" Danny said _'No use in arguing, the jumpsuit is pretty out there after all.'_

"My room's just upstairs, first door to the right." Jake showed Danny where the staircase was "My mom bought me some new clothes a couple days back that were too big, they should be in a bag on the floor." Danny smiled at the comment, if he had a dollar for every time his mom had bought him the wrong size, he'd be rich or at least buying his own clothes. Danny made his way up the stairs and went into Jake's room. The bag was easy enough to find and was filled with clothes that were his size. Danny quickly discovered Jake's favourite colour was red. _'Good thing he's a red dragon.' _Danny thought as he looked through the selection of red and yellow jackets and shirts. He grabbed a pair of black jeans and a plain red t-shirt and changed.

* * *

Jake watched Danny go up the staircase. He was trying really hard to not show it, but he was still panicking. "Ok," he said to himself, "just relax. He's not evil, just d-dead." Jake's motivational speech was not helping calm his nerves in the least. Realizing this Jake grabbed the home phone and dialled Gramps. "Yo G," he almost screamed into the handset. _'Ok, try and relax, don't want Danny to know I'm freaking out.'_

"What is wrong Young Dragon?" Gramps' concerned voice came across the line.

"He's dead." Jake blurted out.

"Who?"

"Danny Phantom. He's dead."

The line was silent for a moment. "What happened?" Gramps asked, a sad tone coming into his voice.

Jake, still panicking, continued without realising his mistake. "There was this ghost and I went inside, but only cause Danny said to, but Danny didn't go inside and he was taking care of it, I wanted to help, but couldn't after Shackles Jack and the box ghost seemed even worse, like there was no trophy, I wanted to grab the remote cause it was kinda awkward and then Danny flew through the window and the table and the wall, twice, and then I was talking to him when I found out he was dead all along." Jake gasped for air.

"Where is he now?"

"In my room, he needed normal clothes, so my dad won't think anything's wrong."

Gramps sighed "I can ear you are distressed young one. Fu-dog and I will be over shortly. I will arrange for your father to stay late at work. Don't do anything until we arrive." with that Gramps hung up.

Jake took a deep breath. He was terrified of ghosts, but Danny didn't seem bad. _'Maybe I'm just over reacting' _ he thought _' Still it'll be better to have Gramps here with me, just to check him out.' _A minute later Jake's mom came home with Hayley.

"Hi Jake," she said "Where's you guest?"

"Upstairs in my room," Jake said, "He needed some normal clothes."

"Alright then. Oh, by the way your father called, he won't be home for dinner tonight, so let your guest know he can relax.

"I'll let him know." Jake said. Hopefully Danny wouldn't take that as an invitation to float above the table during dinner or something. The mental image was so silly it made Jake laugh. He felt himself calm down the more he thought about what Danny seemed like. "Everything will be fine." he said to himself.


	7. Chapter 7

**Hi everyone, the next chapter is up and it's the longest yet! I think I need to clear this up for you as well, ghosts CAN be seen in the American dragon world, in the episode with Shackles Jack Spud is the one to first see the ghost discussing his plan with the others. Please keep the reviews coming as they really do help and give me new ideas. Thanks for all the support so far, I hope you continue to enjoy it.**

* * *

Gramps hung the phone up after talking to Johnathan's boss. "Of all the things that could've gone wrong, this is surely the worst." Fu dog watched Lao-Shi silently. He knew something was very wrong, but Gramps hadn't said a word to the do since Jake's phone call and Fu wasn't sure if he wanted to know.

"What happened?" Fu gently asked.

"It is Danny Phantom," Gramps said, his voice a hollow echo in the silent room, "He and Jake were attacked by a ghost on the way home."

"A ghost?" Fu breathed. a chill running down his spine as he recalled what Jake had told them about Shackles Jack. He clearly remembered how terrified the kid had been. _'I hope he's taking this ok.'_ he thought.

"Yes." Gramps continued

"Are they ok?" Fu asked _'Please let the kid be ok!'_ he silently begged.

"Jake is fine, but understandably in a state of panic." Gramps did not look up, he merely stared at the floor, a lost expression in his eyes.

"And Danny?" the wrinkled old dog put an a paw on the old man's shoulder. Gramps closed his eyes and took a deep breath. He turned his sorrowful eyes to meet Fu's worried one's. _'It's bad.'_ Fu thought the moment their eyes made contact _'It's worse than bad.'_ Fu braced himself for the answer, but he wasn't prepared for what Gramps said next.

"Danny Phantom," the old man said, returning is gaze to the floor, "is dead." Fu felt a lump in his throat. I wasn't just worse than bad, it was downright tragic. "And," the old man continued, snapping Fu out of his thoughts.

"It gets worse?" The dog asked, his age showing through the sorrow in his eyes.

"Jake saw it happen."

"What!?" Fu couldn't help the exclamation, things couldn't possibly get worse."

"Jake found the body and tried to change Danny's clothes so his father would not think anything was wrong."

_'The poor kid'_ Fu thought, _'his head must be so messed up right now.'_ Fu sighed heavily, "I'll go get some things to hide the body. We can take him back to Amity Park in the morning." Gramps said nothing, he only nodded. Fu left the old man to his thoughts as he went to get a few potions and blankets. He would have to call in a favour with Marty to take them to Amity Park, but he knew his old friend would offer his help, it was an emergency after all. "This is a mess," he said as he grabbed his bag and went down to meet Gramps for the long walk to Jake's house, "an absolute disaster."

* * *

Danny had just finished getting changed into Jake's clothes when he heard a knock at the door. "Uh, come in!" he called. Danny watched as Jake opened the door.

"Wow," the look of horror no longer on his face "with that clothes you look almost normal." he half joked.

"Yeah," Danny said smiling, "and it's a perfect fit too."

Jake returned Danny's smile. "Just thought I'd let you know my Dad won't be back for dinner tonight so you can relax a bit."

"That's a relief," Danny was rather grateful, even if he was in normal clothes, it was still kinda obvious he wasn't human.

"You mind if I ask you a question?" Jake made his way into his room and sat on the edge of the bed.

"Sure," Danny said following suit, glad to be sitting down. For some reason he felt completely drained, _'Weird' _he thought _'I thought the dart would've worn off by now.'_

"How did you end up through that portal and can all ghosts make portals?"

"I never said anything about making it. That was a natural portal, they appear all over the world and usually only last a few minutes or even seconds. They can even take you to the past or future."

Jake thought for a moment before he answered. "So can you make them?"

"No, but I do have a friend that can."

"Ok," Jake said, "makes sense, "but why did you fall through the one earlier today? Did you trip while walking around your hometown and I dunno, stumbled in."

"No. Actually I was being chased through the ghost zone by one of my enemies. He shot some pretty strong paralysis darts at me and they worked pretty well." _'too well' _he thought as his vision started to become slightly blurred. "I ended up falling into the portal." Danny couldn't help but wonder how Skulker was coping after all those darts had hit 'The ghost zone's Greatest Hunter'. Danny had only been hit by two and he was still feeling weak.

"One more question." Jake said, snapping Danny from pleasant thoughts of all the horrible places Skulker could be stuck in right now.

"Yeah, ok." Danny put a hand to his head, he was starting to feel worse.

"What's a ghost zone?"

"A dimension where ghosts..." Danny couldn't finish the sentence, he no longer understood why he should. He was just so dizzy and tired, his eyelids felt like lead weights, _'a little nap won't hurt,'_ he thought as his eyes started to close.

"Where ghosts what?" Jake asked turning his attention to Danny, but he never got an answer as just then Danny fell backwards, onto the bed, his green eyes tightly shut.

* * *

"Danny!" Jake called, but there was no response. "Is he dead?" Jake instantly slapped himself in the face. "Duh!" he said to himself "He's a ghost of course he's dead." Jake watched Danny carefully until he saw the ghost boy move. Jake fell backwards on the bed sighing in relief. _'He's probably just exhausted,'_ Jake looked at the ghost lying next to him. _'I think I would be too if I'd had his day.'_ Jake was vaguely aware of a chiming coming from downstairs.

"Jake!" he heard his mother call "Your Grandfather is here!"

"Coming!" Jake winced _'That was loud!' _ he turned to look at Danny, but he was still fast asleep. _'Maybe I should leave him alone to rest.' _Jake quietly crept out of the room and closed the door behind him. When Jake got downstairs he saw Gramps and Fu waiting for him in the living room. "Yo G, Fu, thanks for sorting things out with Dad."

"It is not a problem young dragon," Gramps said, "it was necessary after all." The look in the old man's eyes made Jake feel hopeless and sad. Before he could ask what was wrong Fu spoke up.

"Where's Danny kid?" he asked, the same sad expression on his fight.

"He's upstairs." Jake said pointing in the general direction of his room, "resting." Both Gramps and Fu seemed even more saddened by Jake's words. _'What is going on?'_

"Should we go get him?" Gramps asked, his sorrowful eyes meeting Jake's.

"Nah, he just went down. Give him some time to recover."

Gramps and Fu gave each other a sad look, "Ok kid, we'll give him until after dinner." It was then that Susan called them all to the dinner table. It was a long, awkward and very quiet meal. Jake was chatting to both his mom and sister, but when it came to the other two it just seemed impossible to have a conversation.

_'Yo, what is up with them tonight!' _he thought _'I wish Danny was here, at least he's more cheerful than these two and he's dead!'_ Jake wasn't quite sure what happened next. There was a loud crash as something hit the table, sending food flying everywhere.

"Ouch." he heard an echoing voice from the middle of the table. Jake stared dumbstruck at a dazed Danny, lying on what used to be a bowl of peas.

_'I guess the old saying's true,'_ Jake thought _'be careful what you wish for.'_

* * *

A cold shiver ran through Danny instantly waking him up. He opened his eyes and saw a box floating in front of him. The box ghost suddenly appeared and opened the box's lid, "BEWARE!" he cried unleashing a beam of energy that sent Danny flying through the floor. His plummet ceased abruptly as he hit a hard surface. Danny winced in pain as he felt something shatter beneath him and make its way into his back. His head was the next thing to hit the hard surface, with such a force it made his vision swim.

"Ouch," Danny said as he put a hand to his throbbing head.

"Mommy," he heard a young girl ask "where did he come from?" The little girl got no answer from an obviously stunned mother. Danny sat up straight and opened his eyes to see the stunned faces around him.

_'Why am I so high up?'_ he looked down and found a table beneath him. "Wow!" he said, honestly shocked, "That's a strong table, what's it made of ? Concrete?" Danny did another take of the room. He saw Jake, Fu-dog, Lao Shi, the little girl who spoke before and the last one was probably Jake's mom. Danny noticed everyone was covered in food scraps as was the rest of the room. "Sorry!" he said, "jumping down from the table." I didn't mean to, it was an accident!" Danny wasn't sure where to look, but settled on begging Jake's mother for forgiveness. Jake's mom seemed to relax a bit, but still seemed unsure as to how to react.

"It's ok," she sighed "but this kitchen won't clean itself." Jake's mom fell back on the usual response, "Accident or not, I want this place spotless."

"Yes ma'am." Danny said, half heartedly saluting Jake's mom.

"I'm gonna kill the box ghost next time I see him." he whispered under his breath.

"What?!" Jake shouted jumping up "The box ghost is back?"

"How did you hear that?" Danny asked the terrified boy. The box ghost chose that moment to make an appearance.

"BEWARE FOR I, THE BOX GHOST, HAVE RETURNED!" Danny looked up at the ghost zone's most annoying inhabitant.

"I thought you were running away." Danny said, clearly unimpressed by the ghost's reappearance.

"THAT WAS MERELY A RUSE, CLEVERLY USED TO CATCH YOU OFF GUARD AND SPREAD FEAR AMONG THESE PEOPLE!"

"Oh please! I don't think anyone here is actually scared of you, right everyone? Um guys?" Danny turned his attention to the group of terrified faces in the kitchen. "Oh come on! He's not scary! The only thing he has power over is boxes!" This didn't seem to convince anyone, even the old and wise Lao Shi seemed lost for what to do.

"YOU SEE? THEY FEAR ME! MY RUSE WORKED PERFECTLY!" The box ghost laughed evilly making the family, and dog, even more fearful.

"Oh for the love of...Look box ghost your stupid plan didn't work."

"AND WHY NOT?" he bellowed

"Cause instead of attacking them while I was asleep, you attacked me and woke me up, you dimwit!" Danny shouted.

"Oh," the Box ghost said meekly, realising his mistake, "but STILL YOU HAVE NO MEANS TO TRAP ME!"

"No," Danny said folding his arms across his chest, "but I've had a stressful day and can still kick your butt."

"When you put it that way I suppose I can leave you be, FOR NOW, BUT I WILL RETURN, BEWARE!" As the box ghost fled Danny fired off an ecto beam, hitting his greatest headache clean in the rear.

"Beware!" Danny cried as the Box ghost disappeared.

After a few moments of silence Lao Shi spoke up, "That was a most impressive spell young one."

"Huh?" Danny replied unintelligibly.

"It takes decades to master spell casting without a wand or incantation and even longer to learn spells powerful enough to harm ghosts." Danny wanted to correct the old man, but never got the chance as Fu joined in on the conversation.

"You must use a regeneration charm of some sorts, don't you? You should've told us kid, Jake here thought you were dead. We came here to collect your body and take it home."

"You came here to do what?!" Danny and Jake's mom yelled in horror at the same time.

"Why did you tell them I was dead!" Danny asked , turning to Jake.

"Because you are?" Jake replied, a confused look on his face.

"Oh right!" Danny said, waiting to kick himself, of course Jake had told them he was dead, he was just a ghost to them after all. "So they don't know either?" he asked Jake.

"Apparently not, but I did call to tell...oh!" Danny watched as recognition dawned on Jake's face as he seemed to remember something important.

"What did you do?" Danny asked, arms folded across his chest. He knew that look on Jake's face, it was guilt.

"I was kinda still freaking out when I called Gramps and basically ended up saying you were dead." Jake smiled guiltily at Danny Lao Shi and Fu-dog.

"Oh," Danny said lowering his arms, the stern expression leaving his face "that's not too bad."

"It isn't?" Jake asked in shock.

"Well it is true." Danny said smiling, "so no harm done."

"No harm!" Fu-dog suddenly exclaimed. " I thought I was coming down here to remove a dead body, That's psychological harm!" Lao Shi put a hand on Fu-dog's shoulder to calm him down.

"Enough Fu-dog" the old man said, "Jake was confused and scared, besides it is not as if he lied." The old man pulled his hand back and looked at Danny "If you are not alive, then what are you?" Danny was about to answer when Fu-dog interrupted him again.

"Wait!" he cried "You're not alive?"

"No." Danny said.

"Are you a zombie? Or maybe a vampire or even worse a werewolf?"

"Actually I'm a ghost." Danny said, surprised at the lack of reaction to his answer he asked a question of his own, "You're not a werewolf are you?"

"No just a magical talking dog."

"Ok." Danny said, _'Wonder why he didn't freak out?'_

"Ghost!" Fu suddenly cried, running to hide behind Lao Shi.

_'No wait. There it is.' _Danny thought.

"Relax Fu," Danny saw Jake going towards the dog, "he's the good guy." Danny couldn't help but smile, he was glad Jake was starting to trust him.

"Ghosts are never good Jake," Fu whispered, unaware Danny could hear every word ,"they're bound to the Earth through intense desire and it's only the evil ones that survive."

"Actually, none of that is true," Danny looked at the cowering dog, "There's only a handful of evil ghosts. In fact most ghosts just want to be left alone."

"Oh really?" Fu said angrily, walking up to Danny, over his earlier fear "Then where are they? Hmmm?" I've never seen a single one."

"They want to be left alone," Danny said flatly, "showing themselves to the living kinda defeats the purpose."

"A likely story." the angry dog growled back.

"That is enough Fu-dog." Lao Shi said sternly, "Danny has done nothing but offer his help since he arrived, he deserves a chance to prove he is not evil." Fu dog looked sheepishly at the floor and mumbled. "Now Danny," Lao Shi walked up to the young ghost, "May I introduce you to Jake's mother, Susan and sister Hayley."

"Nice to meet you." Susan said, looking at Danny sadly.

Danny heard Hayley gasp. "You have glass in your back!" she shrieked as Danny shook Susan's hand.

"Oh right," he said, "I sorta forgot about that." _'I must've hit my head pretty hard to forget about that.'_

"Oh dear!" Susan gasped upon seeing the shards embedded in Danny's back. "Come with me Danny and we'll find a way to get that out of you!"

"There's no need." Danny said raising a hand to stop Susan when she wanted to protest. Danny concentrated and turned only himself intangible causing the glass shards, and crushed food, to fall unhindered to the floor.

"That was so cool!" Hayley squealed.

"I gotta agree, that could come in handy." Jake said looking down at the mess below Danny, "What about the wounds though?"

"Don't worry about that, they'll heal up in a few minutes, sorry about the shirt though." Danny knew, from the amount of glass on the floor, that the back of the shirt would be a shredded mess.

"Danny," he heard Susan ask, "Do you mind if I ask you something?"

"Not at all." Danny said, worried by the sad look on the woman's face.

"How old are you?"

"I'm sixteen."

"And How long have you been a ghost?"

"A little over two years now," Danny said cautiously, not liking where this was going. Danny could see the sorrow in Susan's eyes, he was pretty young for a ghost after all and he understood that it was upsetting Susan, and now that he looked around the room he could see the same was true for everyone else. He couldn't tell them the truth though, not yet anyway.

Before anyone could say anything further Jake's dad walked in through the front door and into the kitchen. "How de do familia?" he said happily, "Oh Wowzers!" What happened to the kitchen?"

"Sorry sir, it was my fault," Danny said, "I tripped and fell into the table."

"Oh goshers," he said, making his way towards Danny and looking him over "are you ok kiddo?"

"Just fine," Danny smiled, Jake's dad seemed pretty nice and normal too. "I'm Danny, by the way." Danny held out his hand which Jake's dad grabbed happily and shook warmly.

"The name's Johnathan Long Danny-boy, are you the pen-pal I was told was coming to visit."

_'Nice cover story.'_ he thought, glad he didn't have to come up with one for once. "Sure am Mr. Long."

"Oh please Danny, call me Johnathan. Now," Johnathan said as he looked around the mess "Why don't we have dinner in the living room before we clean this up." Johnathan, Hayley and Susan dished some plates of food and went to the living room, leaving the rest of the group in the kitchen.

"Dude! That was amazing!" Jake said looking at Danny

"It was?" he replied dumbly "What did I do?"

"You just rolled with the story so easily."

"Wait, you're impressed that I'm good at lying?"

"Yeah! I suck compared to you!" Jake handed Danny a plate and they dished themselves some dinner. It was at that moment that Fu-dog got a phone call.

"Sorry kid, but there's dragon business that needs doing." the dog said.

_'Where did that phone come from.'_ Danny wondered, staring at the cell phone in the dog's paw.

"Aw man!" Jake said, slumping his shoulders.

"Relax young one," Lao Shi said smiling. "Fu-dog and I will take care of it tonight."

"Thanks G."

"Come Fu-dog." Gramps said and Danny watched as the dog lifter up a roll of his skin and tucked his phone in it.

_'Um, ew!' _Danny thought, _'I think I would've preferred not to know.'_

As the old man and dog left Danny and Jake made their way into the living room. Danny spent the rest of the evening telling the family about Amity Park and all the ghost stories associated with the place. After the best supper he'd ever eaten, apparently Jake's mom was a professional caterer, and everyone pitching in to clean the kitchen Danny was finished. Danny was shown to the guest bedroom and given some new clothes, he never got changed into it though as he found himself falling asleep almost instantly.

* * *

**P.S. little miss BANANNA HEAD your last comment gave me the idea for Danny falling through the floor onto the table, so thanks ;) And Lynse gave me the idea to bring the Box ghost back, cause admittedly he did flee far too easily.**


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